In today's WaPo, Theola Labbé-DeBose and Robert E. Pierre report on an unusual police strategy:

D.C. police, frustrated that a teenage robbery suspect they have arrested kept getting released, took to cyberspace yesterday in an unusual effort to lobby judges and city officials to keep him off the streets.

Exasperated by the third arrest of the same suspect in a string of 21 robberies, a D.C. police official sent an electronic bulletin to residents of Columbia Heights pleading for them to flood Peter Nickles, the city's top attorney, with calls and e-mails demanding that the suspect not be released.

As of last night, he hadn't been.

Under the subject line "ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT," Inspector Edward Delgado said the teenager allegedly had been sneaking up behind victims, knocking them to the ground and swiping whatever he could: money, cellphones, iPods.

(The title of this post is the headline of the print version of the story.)

The special treatment of juveniles in juvenile court is for the purpose of straightening out kids who have gone astray with minor to midrange offenses such as vandalism and car theft. When they have graduated to major crimes of violence such as robbery, rape, and murder, it's time to take off the kid gloves and prosecute these crimes as crimes. That is particularly true for repeat offenders.